"The Iraq war has been a disaster and has substantially increased the terrorist threat Mr Howard said it would reduce,".

"The aim of foreign and defence policy is to make Australia secure - ironically some of our policies have placed Australians at greater risk."

Mr Woolcott called on the government to come up with an exit strategy.

The only politicians who just don't get it, or think that if they go on dissembling long enough someone will beam them up, is the Howard/Downer 'son et lumiere' tragedy, played out yet again in Parliament this week.

Downer was verging on the apoplectic, trying to paint Iraq as a raging success. He is quickly becoming a charactiture of himself - bullying Melanesian leaders, frightening the North Koreans into abject submission - a legend in the annals of AWB!